Keep your friends close and your enemies closer
by Morphie
Summary: Draco gets a mysterious letter telling him to befriend Harry Potter, but does he really want to? Why does Voldemort want him to complete this task for him?


The sky grew dark quickly, and the clouds condensed as it suddenly began to rain. Its wings were saturated, and they slowed down its fight, as the rain grew heavier.  
  
It beated hard against the wind. Higher and higher it flew. The journey was nearly over, it was close, just a little further!  
  
Slowly the vision of its target drew closer. A Mountain surrounded by a great black lake. Atop the mountain was a tremendous castle with many turrets and towers, its many windows were sparkling in the cloudy sky.  
  
Tucking its large feet underneath its belly, protecting its precious cargo from the heavy rain, it swoops lower towards the castle. Gliding around the castle, it reaches the right window and enters to all the loud laughter and chatter of the New School Year Feast in the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  
  
Several heads looked up and watched as the giant Eagle Owl entered the Hall, descending lower and lower towards one of the four long wooden tables, the one belonging to the Slytherin House. It landed and went skidding along the table, leaving a wet streak behind it. It skidded to a halt at a half-empty dinner plate of a pale boy with silvery blonde hair.  
  
Draco Malfoy snatched up the letter from the owl's claws and quickly shoved it into his robes. He glared around the table, whoever had been watching him had quickly gone back to their meals.  
  
Draco knew who the letter was from, though it was very unusual that owl post came at this time. No one else left the same symbol of a silver snake wrapped around the letter M like a Malfoy, so the letter was from his father, Lucius.  
  
Unable to wait until the feast was over to read it, Draco got up from his seat and walked out of the Great Hall.  
  
Over at the Gryffindor table sat Harry Potter with his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, along with Ron's younger sister Ginny and Neville Longbottom.  
  
"This year is going to be different, Harry!" exclaimed Ron. "I bet that we will never lose a single match of Quidditch, barely pass our N.E.W.T's and finally get back at those Slytherins once and for all after all the torture they have put us through, especially Malfoy!"  
  
Hermione and Harry laughed at Ron's enthusiasm.  
  
"What's so funny?" Ron asked.  
  
"Ron, I'm not going to help you pass your N.E.W.T's! How many times do I have to tell you? Do it yourself, and as for the Slytherins, you seem a bit over confident. Though I have to admit I'd like to get my revenge on them too before I leave this year!" Hermione answered.  
  
"But we will win the Quidditch Cup without a doubt, right Harry?" Ginny asked him.  
  
Harry smiled. He couldn't help but feel kind of excited at what the new school year might bring this year, his seventh year.  
  
They all continued to eat their feast merrily, chatting away as their stomach's filled up with food. Then when the feast was over Dumbledore dismissed the students and they all went up to their dormitories to sleep.  
  
Meanwhile, in the Slytherin common room, Draco was sitting on one of the big couches reading the letter from his father.  
  
"Draco,  
I am now laying low in the area surrounding Hogsmeade. I will visit the school soon, in the meantime the Dark Lord has requested for you to complete a task for him, as part of a new plan. You are now 17, and the Dark Lord feels that you are ready to join the ranks among the Deatheater's. Your task is to try and get as close to Harry Potter as possible, befriend him. Lucky you rather than myself doing the dirty work. More details about your mission will be given later in time.  
  
I suggest you do not fail, as the Dark Lord has not been in the best of moods lately, and I do not want failures in my family. Try befriending one of Potter's friends to begin with; gather all information on him. I'll notify again later,  
Lucius"  
  
Draco finished reading the letter and stared into the green flames of the fire in the fireplace. Become friends with Potter? It was his worst nightmare. It was torture enough that Potter is in the same dimension; Draco wanted nothing more than to have Harry defeated by He-who-must-not-be-named without his help.  
  
Draco continued to stare into the flames, then he pulled a quill from out of his robes, scribbled a message onto a piece of parchment, and sent his owl back to Lucius with the answer:  
  
"Yes, father." 


End file.
